Glacier Exploring at Mount Cook

Our car screeched on and the tallest peak of New Zealand loomed in a distance. We weren’t sure which one was Mount Cook, but we harbored an obvious guess – the tall, snowcapped one. Spot on. Like a ruler of its kingdom, Mount Cook stood majestic amongst the other mountains.

It was tall, serene and beautiful, yet all I could think of was the silly little fun things you get to do in the snow. All that sledding down the slope, snow-angels and snow-men, I was even looking forward to getting hit in a snow-fight.

Good fun, but as it turned out, I was sadly mistaken – it was summer, and there aren’t any snow in summer. The top of Mount Cook’s peak was snow-capped all year round, but the area allowed for tourists weren’t so. “Wrong season,” I thought, slightly disappointed.

So instead, we had to settle for second best after snow – ice. We booked ourselves a tour exploring the Tazman Glacier Lake, the largest glacier lake in the Mount Cook vicinity.

The Glacier Lake was a good 15 minutes walk away from the Tazman Valley, itself a 10 minute bus-ride away from the Mount Cook Village. We made our way through rocks and boulders with the scenic Mount Cook laying dormant to our side. As we approached a cliff overseeing the Glacier Lake, a strong draft caught us by surprise, and it took my cap away with me!

“Whatever…” I sighed. The Glacier Lake was right in front of us, and I can feel the excitement bubbling in our group as we quickly strapped on our life jackets and set off.

The lake water was pastel-colored, a slight off-white color that was quite unexpected. I thought it would’ve been clean and clear, a pure mountain water straight from the melted snow. It seemed however, that the glaciers contained chemicals which gives off this dirty off-white color.

As the lake flows seaward, the chemicals would reflect sunlight and give off a beautiful blueish color, as seen in the stunning Lake Tekapo.

The water itself was cold, ranging between one to four degree Celcius even during summer. As you can imagine, “survival time in the water isn’t very long,” our guide warned half-jokingly.

The glaciers themselves were magnificent and stunning, a jaw-dropping marvel. For someone who has been accustomed to living in the tropics, this phenomenon of gigantic rocks made purely out of ice – it was amazing in every sense of the word! I can almost imagine myself tip-toe-ing over the boat on top of the glaciers. Not allowed, of course.

Our boats went near the side as we got up-close and personal with these ice-bergs. It was crystal clear! We slowly explored the various glaciers, and we hunted for random pieces of ice laying around in the water.

At one point, we heard a thunderous roar behind us. We immediately spun around to witness a part of an iceberg breaking away! Straight down it went into the lake and our guide swerved the boat around to bring us closer.

Parts of Icebergs break away regularly due to the varying temperature. One way or another, the iceberg starts to tilt due to imbalanced weight on the sides. Come a point when the law of equilibrium takes over and it flips upside-down, the submerged part of the iceberg then resurfaces – crystal blue in hue, replacing the dirt-stained side.

After a good hour of exploration (and cold, freezing winds), we made our way back. As it turns out, this Glacier Lake trips are only available during the summer. The lake would often freeze out during the winter. I guess that’s the silver lining to our summer visit to Mount Cook – we missed the snow, but got some ice-cold fun in the Glacier Lakes!

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